Support materials may be formed over semiconductor material and utilized for fabrication of integrated circuit components.
A typical support material is silicon dioxide. The silicon dioxide may be undoped, or may be doped with one or more of phosphorus, boron and fluorine (for instance, the silicon dioxide may be in the form of borophosphosilicate glass).
One method of utilizing support material is to form capacitors for dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Openings may be formed in the support material, and then one or more structures may be fabricated by depositing material within the openings. For example, container-shaped capacitor storage nodes may be formed by depositing a layer of titanium nitride to partially fill openings in a support material. Subsequently, the support material may be removed, and then capacitor dielectric and capacitor plate material may be deposited within and around the storage nodes to form capacitor constructions.
Silicon dioxide may have several disadvantages as a support material. For instance, patterning of silicon dioxide may be complicated due to a dry etch of silicon dioxide having a large physical component (that is, it may be more like physical sputtering than like a chemical etch). The sputtering nature may create difficulty in obtaining a straight profile since the etch may exhibit a lateral component that can lead to a tapered profile.
It is desired to develop new methods of utilizing support materials for fabrication of microelectronic structures.